The simpatico relationship between Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders is already well-documented—for starters, see Keystone Companions: The Complete 1973 Fantasy Recordings—but the audience’s demand for the fruits of their chemistry is proportionate to the chemistry itself, so now we have the latest edition of Garcia Live taken from an August 1974 gig at the same Berkeley venue as the aforementioned box set.
The nine selections of Volume Nine in this archival series well illustrate how a setlist can oftentimes barely scratch the surface of what went on below and beyond the songs documented in a given night’s performance. For those devotees following the solo career of this titular leader of the Grateful Dead, strains of Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” and The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” may immediately come to mind: both became regular choices from the repertoire of the Jerry Garcia Band shortly after its formation.
But how these tunes metamorphose here is oftentimes something else altogether in the hands of the guitarist and keyboardist Saunders as they fuse their efforts with saxophonist Martin Fiero, bassist John Kahn and drummer Bill Kreutzmann. Precursor to the band eventually dubbed ‘Legion of Mary” that coalesced later this same year, this quintet displays the same predilection to dig deeply into a groove, the depth of which recordist Betty Cantor-Jackson captures with her usual impeccable clarity (and which Fred Kevorkian preserves with his equally reliable mastering).
Yet, as on the wisely-chosen opener, “That’s What Love Will Make You Do,” the funk foundation serves simply as a means to move (far) beyond the rhythmic underpinnings of the song’s structure as LOM was wont to do In turn, the band ascends into the bright, breezy air of “La La” largely via Fiero’s flute, but only slightly less through the even-handed touch Kreutzmann applies to his drums and likewise Kahn to his bass. Garcia’s guitar is unusually fluid when he takes over the lead on this cut, evidence no doubt of how this kind of work—and the self-professed mentoring from Saunders–stretched him in ways he could not anticipate, but by which he could nevertheless benefit.
A short ambient interlude, a la ‘Space,” concludes that original of the horn man’s before the band embarks on the blues of “It Ain’t No Use,” Maintaining an ever so light touch in doing so—as is also the case on a seventeen-minute instrumental(!) cull from post-Motown Four Tops, “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)– this number presages “It’s Too Late” later in the set, just prior to the appearance of the reliable improvisational warhorse that’s “(I’m A) Road Runner;” the band unerringly navigates all these changes no matter how greasy (or salty for that matter!). Likewise, the all-out romp that is “Mystery Train.”
While the stylized graphics of the Garcia Live series has come to symbolize the consistency of its excellent content and the stylish overall presentation of each edition, the two CD package of Volume Nine belies those virtues ever so slightly. First of course, there’s the somewhat novel, open-ended approach of the musicianship, but then there’s also the astute authorship of Merl Saunders Jr.’s essay within the CD booklet; the warmhearted affection pervading his insightful perceptions is a direct reflection of the relationship between Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders, an attribute they clearly shared with their bandmates and, in turn, with the audience, this night at the intimate California club. It’s further testament to this bond that the resulting sounds resonate so deeply now, over four decades later, with an equally abiding audience-by-proxy.
